Farrar takes sprint in a photo finish

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Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervelo) won the mass sprint of the Trofeo Cala Millor in a photo finish, nosing out two HTC-Highroad riders, John Degenkolb and Leigh Howard. It was the second straight sprint win for the American in the Challenge Mallorca, although Sunday's Trofeo Palma was declared “unofficial” by the International Cycling Union.

The stage was marked by a long escape of three riders: Steven Cozza (NetApp), Luis Pasamontes (Movistar), and Adrian Saez de Arregi (Orbea). The trio were away from the bunch for over 130 kilometres, and built up a lead of up to nine minutes.

No radio protest or rider strike

The race started on schedule, as there was no further protests against the race radio ban, and the riders set off without them. A strike had been rumoured, but didn't happen, as apparently the UCI had said it would have cancelled the race entirely, and the riders didn't want to hurt the race organisers.

A large group tried to get away early, but Leopard Trek and Garmin-Cervelo chased them down.

There were three climbs on the day's stage, all category four – just enough to test the legs in the very early part of the season. Shortly after the first one, at about 40 km, a threesome of Luis Pasamontes (Movistar), Adrian Saez de Arregi (Orbea) and Steven Cozza (NetApp) established themselves, and with the peloton's permission, took off. But when the gap hit nine minutes at the 65km marker, the peloton decided that was enough.

From there the gap dropped steadily, with Leopard Trek, Garmin-Cervelo and RadioShack leading the chase. It was a slow but sure chase, with the peloton timing things perfectly and not catching the trio too early.

With 27km to go, Pasamontes took off from his two companions, who were soon caught by the field. He, too, was caught with 15 km to go, and HTC-Highroad, Rabobank, RadioShack, Movistar and Garmin-Cervelo all moved in for the sprint finish. Philippe Gilbert of Omega Pharma-Lotto tried to break away within the final 10km, but Garmin-Cervelo and Rabobank quickly rode him down, and the mass sprint was set up.